Micah Roberts

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After the dust had settled from Thursday's rapid-fire blockbuster trades, there was a ripple effect seen on the World Series future odds of every Las Vegas sports book which give quite an indication of who they felt were the winners and losers from all the transactions.

The biggest splash of all at the LVH SuperBook was the Tigers being reinserted as a co-favorite at 7-to-2 odds by making the deal to get left-hander David Price from Tampa Bay, which now gives them a starting rotation featuring the past three AL Cy Young Award winners.

The Tigers had been 5-to-1 the previous week, but Price being added to the mix with Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez and Rick Porcello, who is having a career year, makes them a hard team to go against -- or, at least from the books perspective, offer odds too high. When considering their offense is second-best in baseball with a .277 batting average and .435 slugging percentage, this team looks extremely dangerous in a best-of-five or best-of-seven playoff format.

The biggest move of the morning trades on Thursday saw the A's send Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox for lefty Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes. This makes the A's, who already had the best team ERA for AL starting pitchers, a formidable opponent for anyone in the playoffs, but because the Tigers matched them with their own ace, the A's could drop no further from 9-to-2 down to 7-to-2 to win the World Series. The A's lead baseball this season by averaging five runs per game. How much the effect of losing a key bat in the heart of their lineup will be known over the next two months. One thing is for sure -- they got themselves a big-game pitcher for the first time since the glory years of the bash brothers.

The two World Series favorites balance each other out in the AL, while the Dodgers were dropped from 9-to-2 down to 4-to-1 as the top NL candidate to win the World Series. The Dodgers didn't anything on Thursday, but between having risk already on them and no NL team making any significant upgrades, their chances of winning their first World Series since 1988 were enhanced.

The Dodgers path to the World Series appears much easier than the AL favorites of Detroit and Oakland, who also have the prospects of having to deal with Anaheim and Baltimore. The Angels, raised from 8-to-1 up to 10-to-1, were quiet on Thursday, but last week they landed Huston Street, perhaps the best closer in baseball, which immediately upgraded their weakest link. However, they can't match the rotations man-for-man of what Oakland and Detroit bring.

The Dodgers toughest possible opponents in the playoffs figured to be the Nationals (8/1) and Cardinals, but even with the Cards' rotation bolstered by additions of Justin Masterson from Cleveland on Wednesday and John Lackey from Boston on Thursday, they still didn't address their most pressing need -- hitting. St. Louis averages only 3.7 runs per game, which is the second lowest in baseball behind the light-hitting Padres. In the Lackey deal, they gave up on the slumping Allen Craig, who spearheaded the Cardinals offensive attack on their run to the World Series last season.

In the process of the Cardinals odds being raised to 14-to-1 from 10-to-1 after the trades, the NL-Central leading Brewers were lowered from 20-to-1 down to 14-to-1. Milwaukee made one small transaction Thursday, getting gold-glover Gerardo Parra from Arizona.

The other team contending in the NL Central is the Pirates, who surprisingly did nothing. Their odds also did nothing, staying put at 25-to-1. They currently lead baseball with a .332 on-base percentage, but they needed some pitching. However, they got a big boost when one of their own starters came back to life. Since coming off the DL, Francisco Liriano appears to finally be 100 percent after struggling all season. In three starts since the All-Star break, he's allowed only two earned runs, and the Pirates have won all three games, including his 7-inning, 11-strikeout performance in a 3-1 win at San Francisco on Tuesday.

So, while the Pirates didn't mortgage their future to get one of the prized arms, Liriano pitching so well lately gave them the ability to not be so desperate. It's almost like bringing in a new arm because all Liriano had done prior to the All-Star game is hurt them.